Best Paramount Plus Shows | TechRadar

Best Paramount Plus Shows

Finding the best Paramount Plus shows is the good kind of difficult: Paramount is home to some of the biggest Hollywood movie franchises with a catalogue ranging from The Godfather to Mission: Impossible and Scream, and its TV studios – which include Showtime and CBS – have been making great shows for a very long time.

Most of those great shows and movies are available to stream on Paramount Plus (opens in new tab), a relatively recent entry to the streaming market. It aims to bring the studio's huge catalogue together in a single package, and so far it's available in the US, Latin America, Canada, Australia as well as in most of Europe, including the UK. 

Paramount isn't resting on its laurels, though. In addition to classic shows and vintage sci-fi such as Star Trek: The Next Generation it's been making new classics including the wonderful Yellowjackets, quirky legal drama The Good Fight, the lavish video game spin-off Halo (opens in new tab) and the welcome return of Sylvester Stallone in Tulsa King.

You'll find our favourite Paramount picks below, and we'll keep this list updated with the latest shows so keep checking back to find some new favourites as they're added to the service. 

So here, without further ado, are our pick of the best shows on Paramount Plus…

Tulsa King

(Image credit: Paramount+)

The first season of Tulsa King was the highest-rated series debut on cable this year, so it's no surprise that it's already been renewed for a second season. It's a gangster drama with a superstar in the lead role: Sylvester Stallone is Dwight "The General" Manfredi, an ageing mobster recently released from prison and with no intention of going straight. 

This isn't your usual mob movie. When Dwight returns to New York, ready to pick up where he left off, he finds there's no place for him – so he's sent to Tulsa, Oklahoma where he wastes no time in finding new associates. 

Tulsa King has been described as a "dramedy", because while the main story is pretty dark there's a bleak sense of humour in the writing, the violence is often cartoonish and Stallone gets plenty of wisecracks. It's one of the best Stallone performances in many years, a mix of swagger and vulnerability that demonstrates his considerable acting chops. 

Yellowjackets

(Image credit: Showtime)

One of the best new shows around with a  flawless rating on Rotten Tomatoes) (opens in new tab) and  now heading for a second season, it's gruesome drama Yellowjackets. 

The story alternates between 1996 and 2021. In 1996 a team of New Jersey high school soccer players is traveling to Seattle for a national tournament when their plane crashes deep in the Canadian wilderness. The surviving team members have to fend for themselves for 19 months, during which time the group splits into rival clans and descends into savagery, going full Lord of the Flies in the process. In the present day, the survivors have made new lives for themselves, but the ordeal they endured as teenagers is about to come back to haunt them. 

Sharp, witty, and with a killer soundtrack, Yellowjackets is great TV, but a word of warning: the critics, desensitized bunch that they are, adored the show, but it’s gruesome stuff, and not for the faint-hearted.

The Offer

(Image credit: Paramount Plus)

Paramount's lavish new drama has had a mixed reception, but if you're hooked by the story, i.e How The Godfather got from book to big screen and the many pitfalls along the way, then you'll have a lot to enjoy. 

Michael Tolkin’s 10-episode show re-tells the making of Francis Ford Coppola's legendary gangster movie from the perspective of its ambitious producer, Albert S. Ruddy. 

Miles Teller stars as Ruddy with Ted Lasso (opens in new tab)'s Juno Temple, Matthew Goode, Giovanni Ribisi and Dan Fogler among the supporting cast. 

(Image credit: Paramount)

After more than a decade in development as a feature film, with directors like Peter Jackson and Neill Blomkamp attached at various points and a script by Alex Garland, Halo, the world-conquering video game franchise, has finally found its way onto our screens with a nine-episode first season. 

The series is set in the year 2552, and follows John-117/Master Chief, a towering genetically-engineered supersoldier who leads humanity’s fight against an alien threat known as The Covenant.

After Master Chief and Silver Team – the squad he leads – defeat an elite Covenant scouting party on the planet Madrigal, the group discovers a mysterious object that could hold the key to ending the Human-Covenant war…

A pricey endeavor for Paramount with a budget of over $90 million for the series, the show is certainly impressive in scale, and boasts a cast that includes Pablo Schreiber, Shabana Azmi, Bokeem Woodbine and Natascha McElhone. 

A second season is already confirmed (opens in new tab), with Paramount betting big on Halo to become a flagship show for its streaming service. 

The Good Wife 

(Image credit: CBS)

One of the most-beloved dramas of the last 20 years, The Good Wife ran for seven highly acclaimed seasons from 2009 to 2016. 

The series follows Alicia Florrick, a lawyer whose husband Peter, a former Illinois State's Attorney, is in prison following a political corruption and sex scandal. Having spent the previous 13 years as a stay-at-home mother, Florrick, returns to work to provide for her family. 

As a legal drama, each episode sees Florrick and her team tackle a different case or dilemma, but the drama of her life and that of her colleagues that plays out across each season makes for a captivating watch. 

Former E.R. star Julianna Margulies plays Florrick, with the show's supporting cast including Archie Panjabi, Josh Charles, Christine Baranski, Alan Cumming, Zach Grenier, Matthew Goode, Cush Jumbo and Jeffrey Dean Morgan. 

At 156 episodes, there’s plenty to get stuck into here, but audiences could not get enough of the show, hence…

The Good Fight

(Image credit: CBS)

After The Good Wife ended, CBS instantly pursued a spin-off, this time focusing on Florrick's colleague, Christine Baranski's Diane Lockhart, who was eyeing up a comfortable retirement until a financial scam took away her life savings. 

Forced back to work, Diane joins her former employee, Cush Jumbo’s Lucca Quinn at Reddick, Boseman, & Kolstad, a prestigious African American-owned firm with a growing reputation. 

The show, which stars Rose Leslie, Erica Tazel, Michael Sheen, Delroy Lindo and Sarah Steele alongside Jumbo and Baranski, keeps The Good Wife's case of the week arc but feels lighter than its predecessor, with episodes freer to take flights of fancy and strange tangents. It's still utterly compelling. 

(Image credit: Paramount Plus)

Although Paramount’s behemoth Yellowstone isn’t on the streaming service yet due to an exclusive deal with Peacock, its prequel, 1883, is already available. 

Whereas Yellowstone follows the Dutton family in modern times, this show follows the story of how the Duttons came to own the land that would become the Yellowstone Ranch. Set, as you might imagine, in 1883, we follow the Duttons as they leave Tennessee, journey to Fort Worth, Texas, and join a European immigrant wagon train heading towards their eventual home. 

Sam Elliott leads the way here, with LaMonica Garrett and country music royalty Tim McGraw and Faith Hill among the supporting players. 

Another prequel to Yellowstone, 1932, has been ordered. Creator Taylor Sheridan, the man behind Sicario (opens in new tab) and Wind River, has another show on Paramount Plus ongoing too...

Mayor of Kingstown

(Image credit: Paramount+)

Marvel Cinematic Universe (opens in new tab) regular Jeremy Renner commands this drama, which has already been renewed for a second season. 

The show follows the McLusky family, power brokers in the fictional town of Kingstown, Michigan. 

Kingstown is in the punishment business: it has seven prisons within a 10-mile radius, some for men and some for women. 

Renner plays Mike, a one-time felon, who now works with his brother, Kyle Chandler’s Mitch, whose nickname is the titular Mayor of Kingstown. The pair are fixers, working between police officers, prison guards, local crime syndicates and the inmates.

As with all of Sheridan’s work, it’s rough and very tough, but the runtime fizzes by all the same. 

The Stand

(Image credit: CBS)

An adaptation of Stephen King’s (opens in new tab) epic novel (which, at well over 1100 pages, truly is epic), this documents the lives of survivors after a global pandemic has wiped out most of the population. (We completely understand if you’re not ready for this one.) 

Starring James Marsden, Odessa Young, Owen Teague, Alexander Skarsgård, Whoopi Goldberg and Amber Heard, the story is told over nine episodes. 

We begin with the news that a lethal strain of influenza has escaped a military biological research station and has killed most of the world’s population. Those few survivors that remain are drawn to one of two figures, the charismatic, but evil, Randall Flagg and Mother Abigail, an elderly woman who survivors come to see as a prophet. The followers of the two will face off, setting up one hell of a confrontation…

Frasier

(Image credit: Paramount)

Paramount Plus is the home of all 11 seasons (that’s 264 episodes) of Frasier, with a revival also coming down the track.  (opens in new tab)

The show follows Kelsey Grammar’s psychiatrist Frasier Crane, who leaves Boston and the gang at Cheers, and returns to his hometown of Seattle, to begin a new chapter as a radio show host. 

Once there, he reconnects with his father and younger brother and sets out to build a new life. 

Still as witty and sparkling as the day it first aired in 1993, if you’re in the market for a new sitcom, get stuck in, there’s a lot to enjoy. 

SEAL Team

(Image credit: CBS)

David Boreanaz, best known for his role as Angel in Buffy The Vampire Slayer, is front and center of this long-running action drama. 

Boreanaz plays Jason Hayes, the leader of Bravo Team, a sub-unit of the United States Naval Special Warfare Development Group, the most elite unit of Navy SEALs going. 

Each episode brings a new and dangerous mission somewhere in the world, with the threats being varied and constant.  

As you might expect, this is quite a chest-thumping drama, but it’s full of action and adventure and done so with real scale. 

Twin Peaks

(Image credit: CBS)

David Lynch’s genre-defying, reality-bending and hugely influential detective drama is still an absolute must-watch. 

On the face of it, Twin Peaks is a simple whodunnit. Kyle MacLachlan’s FBI Special Agent Dale Cooper is called in to assist local Sheriff Harry S. Truman as he investigates the murder of homecoming queen Laura Palmer in the fictional town of Twin Peaks. 

However, within the first few minutes of the show’s feature-length first episode, you’ll quickly realize this is a detective drama like nothing else. 

Trippy, esoteric, mind-bending and impossible to take your eyes off, Twin Peaks is well worth an investment, a good 30 years after its first broadcast. 

Freaks and Geeks 

(Image credit: NBC)

Before they became two of Hollywood’s biggest players, producer Judd Apatow and director Paul Feig came together for Freaks and Geeks. 

Launching the careers of James Franco, Seth Rogen, Jason Segel, Busy Philipps and Linda Cardellini, Freaks and Geeks chronicles the lives of students at McKinley High. 

Mostly we follow Cardellini's Lindsay Weir, a maths prodigy who decides to start hanging out with a group of burnouts, something her friends can’t understand. Along the way, Weir and her new gang go through all the usual teen ups and downs and chemical highs and hungover lows. 

It only lasted one season, but with a dedicated fanbase, it’s become a cult watch in the years since its first broadcast and we should all join that particular cult. 

Coyote 

(Image credit: Paramount Plus)

Michael Chiklis, best known for his role in the hard-hitting police drama The Shield, leads this tight six-parter. 

Chiklis plays Ben Clemens, a recently retired Border Patrol agent, who finds himself drawn back to work, only this time he's working for the Mexican cartels he spent his entire career fighting against…

David Graziano, whose credits include American Gods and What/If, oversees this one. 

Star Trek: Picard

(Image credit: Trae Patton/CBS)

You’ll find the entire Star Trek (opens in new tab) back catalog on Paramount Plus eventually, but this new take on the franchise began its life on the streamer. 

Bringing Patrick Stewart back into the Star Trek fold, we meet Stewart’s Jean-Luc Picard at the end of the 24th Century and 14 years after his retirement from Starfleet. 

Now living a quiet life on his vineyard, Chateau Picard, his newfound peace is destroyed when he is sought out by a mysterious young woman, someone he quickly realizes has strong connections to his past. 

Starring Alison Pill, Isa Briones, Harry Treadaway, Michelle Hurd and Santiago Cabrera alongside Stewart, there have been two seasons of the show thus far, with a third and final run booked for 2023. 

(Image credit: Paramount Plus)

Robert and Michelle King, the powerhouse showrunning team behind The Good Wife and The Good Fight, turn supernatural for this drama. 

In a classic team-up, we follow a skeptical forensic psychologist who is forced to team up with a trainee Catholic priest and a technology contractor as they are sent to investigate purported supernatural incidents in each episode. 

The show stars Katja Herbers, Mike Colter, Aasif Mandvi and Kurt Fuller, with the Kings running the show. 

There have been two seasons so far with a third one on the way in the coming months. 

Interrogation

This proved to be a short-lived, one-season affair, but it’s well worth investing your time in. 

Bringing together Peter Sarsgaard, David Strathairn and Kodi Smit-McPhee, the 10-episode saga was an experimental thing. 

Based on the case of Bruce Lisker, who was convicted of the brutal murder of his adoptive mother at the age of 17, each episode is structured around an interrogation taken directly from the real police case files, with the idea that the viewers play detective themselves. 

The first nine episodes are nonlinear and can be watched in any order, with a final, conclusive episode placed at the end. 

(Image credit: CBS)

Criminal Minds

(Image credit: CBS)

Only rivaled by NCIS and CSI for longevity, there are a whopping 15 seasons (324 episodes) of Criminal Minds to wade through. But, if you’re looking for something to lock in for a good long stretch, then you can’t go far wrong when it comes to comforting procedurals. 

Criminal Minds follows a group of criminal profilers who work for the FBI Behavioral Analysis Unit and use their analysis and profiling skills to investigate a different crime in each episode. 

Over the years, the likes of Mandy Patinkin, Thomas Gibson, Shemar Moore, Matthew Gray Gubler, Jeanne Tripplehorn, Jennifer Love Hewitt, Aisha Tyler and Adam Rodriguez have all taken key roles, with Gubler lasting the entire distance. 

A revival, which is a mere 10 episodes, has been commissioned and will be coming soon, so, if you want to catch up in time for that, you'd better start right now...